Tag: UFC 185

Anthony Pettis Won’t Be Fighting on Same Card as His Brother in the Future

Every fighter has a tough night now and then, but March 14 is a date Anthony and Sergio Pettis won’t be forgetting anytime soon.
The Pettis brothers both competed at UFC 185 that night in Dallas, and both suffered painful losses at the hands of their r…

Every fighter has a tough night now and then, but March 14 is a date Anthony and Sergio Pettis won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

The Pettis brothers both competed at UFC 185 that night in Dallas, and both suffered painful losses at the hands of their respective opponents. For the younger Pettis, it was a drastic turn of fortune, as the up-and-coming prospect watched a dominant first round fade to dust after Ryan Benoit caught him with a powerful left hand in his flyweight debut. Benoit’s punch crumpled Pettis to the canvas, and the Texas native finished the bout moments later with a flurry of shots.

While a fighter getting caught in an exchange is certainly nothing new in mixed martial arts, being a big brother and seeing that happen to your sibling is a different ballgame. The older of the Pettis brothers watched the action from his locker room and, once his younger sibling was felled, was forced to regather and regroup to prepare for his upcoming title defense against Rafael dos Anjos later that night.

Then, as the story goes, the Duke Roufus protege found himself at the end of an extended beating at the hands of “RDA.” In what currently stands as the most lackluster showing of his career—and one that cost him the lightweight title—Pettis‘ normally dynamic offense was shut down from the opening bell to the last. The Kings MMA representative was able to neutralize his stand-up attack then dominate Pettis once the action hit the mat.

The former lightweight champion was a guest on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, where he spoke to Ariel Helwani about his recent performance. While Pettis admits he isn’t quite sure what happened to him physically in Dallas, he was positive he doesn’t want to deal with the emotional roller coaster of competing on the same card as his younger brother going forward. 

The biggest thing I think I’m gonna change is me and my little bro fighting on the same card. The first time it went amazing, the second time not so well. He got knocked out, I had to watch that and get up mentally for my fight. Not making excuses or nothing, but them little things could have triggered my performance.

He gets knocked out and then you gotta reset the battery, reset everything and try to get back up for the next fight. I think it was just a little bit too much for everybody emotionally to go through. Next time if I’m fighting in a big fight like that, it has to be all about me.

With suffering the loss to dos Anjos at UFC 185, Pettis will now have to bounce back from the first defeat he’s suffered since his UFC debut in 2011 against Clay Guida. In his fight with “The Carpenter,” the Milwaukee native was essentially outwrestled and pinned down for the majority of the 15-minute affair. While dos Anjos certainly did his fair share of work with the fight on the canvas, the Brazilian veteran was able to do substantial damage while the fight was on the feet as well.

In fact, it was a powerful left hand he landed in the early stages of the bout that really set the tone for things to come. Pettis was dazed upon impact—it was later revealed he suffered a cracked orbital bone in the exchange—and was forced to go on the defensive for the remained of the fight. And even though his blurred vision certainly played a factor in his performance, Pettis is still not sure what went wrong in the main event at UFC 185.

That said, he’s adamant about getting his weaknesses shored up and returning to “Showtime” form in his next bout.

Yeah, I’m definitely upset with myself. I’m definitely down about losing my belt, but that wasn’t the best Anthony Pettis. He didn’t go out there and demolish my best performance. Then [I’d be] like yeah I need to figure out why I suck at what I do. I just didn’t put it together. It just wasn’t my night.

 

Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise. 

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The 3 Biggest Stars Who Emerged from UFC 185

How wrong we were.
Anthony Pettis was supposed to take another step toward the top of the pound-for-pound mountain after destroying a tough Rafael dos Anjos. That didn’t happen.
Carla Esparza was supposed to walk across the Octagon and stalk her taller…

How wrong we were.

Anthony Pettis was supposed to take another step toward the top of the pound-for-pound mountain after destroying a tough Rafael dos Anjos. That didn’t happen.

Carla Esparza was supposed to walk across the Octagon and stalk her taller opponent before utilizing her superior wrestling en route to cementing her status as the best strawweight on the planet. That also didn’t happen.

But for as little as our predictions coincided with reality, there’s little reason to be upset. Sure, two of the champions lost their crowns, one of which looked to be one of the more promising young stars of the lighter weight classes. But when one champion falls, another rises.

Here are the three stars who emerged from UFC 185.

 

Joseph Duffy

He may not have received the same sort of recognition that Jake Shields or Eddie Alvarez did when they first signed with the UFC, but Joseph Duffy was already famous for at least one of his accomplishments outside of the Octagon: He’s the last man to defeat Conor McGregor. He did so five years ago in less than a minute. Trust me, the UFC won’t let you forget it in the lead-up to Duffy’s next bout.

It may have only been about two minutes of work inside of the cage, but Duffy showcased enough of his striking ability—which isn’t even his forte, mind you—to get people to take notice. That’s not to say he won’t have trouble when facing the crop of fighters that rest atop the UFC’s lightweight ranks (or featherweight ranks, assuming he moves down to face McGregor one day), but you can bet that the world will pay greater attention to Duffy’s next Octagon appearance.

 

Rafael dos Anjos

Of course this guy’s here. You don’t just beat the incumbent champion for five full rounds without making it onto a list like this. 

After spending seven years as journeyman in the UFC, dos Anjos finally took that step. He became a UFC champion in what is often considered the toughest division in all of MMA. But he didn’t just beat the champion; he destroyed the champion. As Dana White put it, nobody actually thought Pettis could ever go down like that. We’d seen him lose fights before, most recently to Clay Guida, but he was never beaten so severely. From pillar to post, Pettis was dominated.

Dos Anjos wouldn’t let the champion breathe for more than a few seconds before darting forward with a face-crushing left hand or a soul-crushing takedown. When all was said and all was done, dos Anjos sat atop the cage and pointed toward the stars. It’s safe to say dos Anjos is still a ways away from seeing himself plastered on the cover of a Wheaties box, but knocking off a flurry of challengers certainly wouldn’t hurt his cause.

 

Joanna Jedrzejczyk

She may not have taken part in the main event. She may not have dominated the most popular fighter on the entire card. She may not have been in the cage for more than two rounds. Even with all that, Joanna Jedrzejczyk is still the biggest star to come out of UFC 185.

She’d already done herself a lot of good after all of the UFC Embedded videos prior to her co-main event. She did what few other non-American fighters have been able to do: She made herself likeable in the eyes of the fans who are seemingly reluctant to accept anybody who doesn’t speak English as their first language (see Jose Aldo and Renan Barao).

And as if her charming ways on the video blogs weren’t enough to give her name some sort of recognition, the belt secured around her waist should fill in the gaps. She is Joanna Champion and, with the right dance partner, she may very well headline her own pay-per-view card before Demetrious Johnson ever does again.

 

Kristian Ibarra is a Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report MMA. He also serves as the sports editor at San Diego State University’s student-run newspaper, The Daily Aztec, and a programming intern at Fox Sports San Diego. Follow him on Twitter at @Kristian_Ibarra for all things MMA.

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Dos Anjos, Pettis Each to Miss Time with Injuries After UFC 185 Main Event

Rafael dos Anjos changed the course of his main event title-fight showdown at UFC 185 in Dallas against Anthony Pettis with a single punch. 
A straight left from dos Anjos shattered Pettis’ orbital bone early in Round 1, effectively blinding the f…

Rafael dos Anjos changed the course of his main event title-fight showdown at UFC 185 in Dallas against Anthony Pettis with a single punch. 

A straight left from dos Anjos shattered Pettis’ orbital bone early in Round 1, effectively blinding the former lightweight champion for the bout’s duration. 

According to a recent report from MMA Fighting’s Chuck Mindenhall, that punch was every bit as vicious as it looked from the outside, as Pettis will need six weeks to heal. 

UFC Tonight reported that Pettis was required to stay in Dallas until Tuesday as a precautionary measure for the broken orbital and will need a follow-up consultation once he touches down in his home base of Milwaukee. 

The newly minted 155-pound champion, dos Anjos, will need some rest and recovery, too. 

Dos Anjos’ manager, Ali Abdelaziz, told UFC Tonight’s Ariel Helwani that his fighter suffered a partially torn medial collateral ligament (MCL) about three weeks out from the fight (h/t Fox Sports’ Damon Martin). 

While dos Anjos will not need surgery on his knee, he will need three months of rehabilitation to reach full strength. 

He was not so lucky where a second injury was concerned. According to a report on UFC Tonight, dos Anjos will need to go under the knife to correct another injury he suffered in training camp. Abdelaziz told Helwani the right side of dos Anjos’ nose is completely shut, while the left side is approximately 70 percent open. 

He escaped without surgery for his knee, but he will undergo surgery to correct this issue. A timetable for his recovery and UFC return is not yet known. 

These two injuries make dos Anjos’ upset victory over Pettis all the more remarkable. His cardio never slowed despite breathing difficulties, and his takedowns were powerful despite a lingering knee issue.  

Stay tuned to Bleacher Report as the situation continues to develop. 

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Anthony Pettis Faces Career-Defining Challenge After Losing UFC Title

Despite Saturday night’s UFC 185 drubbing at the hands of Rafael dos Anjos, Anthony Pettis still has some things going his way.
He’s still relatively young (28), a magnetic presence in the UFC landscape and will still look good flipping tir…

Despite Saturday night’s UFC 185 drubbing at the hands of Rafael dos Anjos, Anthony Pettis still has some things going his way.

He’s still relatively young (28), a magnetic presence in the UFC landscape and will still look good flipping tires in a Reebok commercial. All things considered, the doomsday clock hasn’t quite reached zero for the recently deposed lightweight champion.

With that said, if such a thing existed, Pettis probably would’ve been first in line to ride a time machine following the Dos Anjos bout.

A week ago, the world was his eight-sided, chain-link oyster. He was the perhaps the odds-on favorite to become the biggest star among the UFC’s new crop of champions. He was being bandied as a potential top pound-for-pound fighter in the world. There were superfights resting just beyond his grasp.

Much of that is gone now, or at least altered beyond all recognition.

Dos Anjos’ job of dismantling Pettis—wonderfully detailed by Fightland’s Jack Slack—was so complete that it’s going to take a fairly comprehensive effort to rebuild him.

Whether or not he can ever reclaim his standing in the stacked 155-pound division may well become the defining challenge of his career.

The lion’s share of UFC champions never regain their titles once they lose them, but the all-time greats have shown that it is possible. Randy Couture did it in two weight classes. Matt Hughes did it. Georges St-Pierre did it. Cain Velasquez did it.

No one has done it at lightweight, however, and if Pettis aims to become that division’s first ever two-time champ, he’s certainly got his work cut out for him.

Despite the vast improvement Pettis showed while capturing the title during a 5-0 run starting in Oct. 2011, Dos Anjos painfully demonstrated that he is still susceptible to being bullied in the cage. Dos Anjos disrupted his attacks with pressure and an aggressive, southpaw striking style.

Though Pettis is electrifying and deadly-accurate with his own punches and kicks, he still lacks the ability to dictate where a fight is contested—and Dos Anjos took him down whenever he needed to do it.

Next up for Dos Anjos could be Khabib Nurmagomedov, so long as Nurmagomedov emerges from his UFC 187 bout against Donald Cerrone as No. 1 contender.

The undefeated Dagestan native beat Dos Anjos as recently as April 2014, and the prospect of a rematch had UFC color commentator Joe Rogan theorizing that Nurmagomedov was likely “licking his chops” before Dos Anjos’ victory over Pettis was even complete.

At 22-0, the only thing that has been able to slow down Nurmagomedov thus far has been his own injury status.

If he does indeed take on Dos Anjos later this year and wins, he would represent an even more difficult obstacle for Pettis to overcome on his road back to the title.

It could be that Nurmagomedov knows that, too, and also knows there is still money to be made for him in a bout against Pettis. He hasn’t given the former champion much sympathy since Dos Anjos took his belt last weekend.

Nurmagomedov didn’t mince words during an appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani this week (h/t MMA Fighting’s Shaun Al-Shatti):

I told you he’s no true champion. I told you before, Rafael dos Anjos can beat him, I can beat him, and a lot of fighters can beat him. But all the time, Dana White say he’s pound-for-pound king, he’s one of the greatest. His coaches say he’s Mayweather in MMA. I think it’s joke, you understand? Now everybody understands who is who. Rafael dos Anjos, I, and Cowboy (Cerrone), and Michael Johnson—these guys are top-four in lightweight division. Now Anthony Pettis go to the prelims.

While Pettis probably isn’t going back to the prelims, his next destination remains a bit of a mystery.

Prior to his loss to Dos Anjos, there was talk he might accept a superfight against the winner of the UFC 189 featherweight title bout between Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor. Any hope of that fight was certainly dashed last weekend, but it’s possible Pettis could still match up against the loser of Aldo vs. McGregor.

Whoever walks out of the MGM Grand Garden Arena in July without the UFC 145-pound title will be in a position similar to where Pettis is now.

If either Aldo or McGregor were willing to move up to lightweight—as both have said they are open to doing—a bout against Pettis would certainly still be bigger than any alternative for either man.

Obviously, a great many pieces would have to fall perfectly into place to make that happen. It’s perhaps more possible that Pettis merely goes back to the crowded pack of lightweight contenders. Any members of the current 155-pound top 10 would make serviceable and salable opponents for him, though he’s already fought most of the rest of the top five.

Taking on somebody like Johnson, Myles Jury or Eddie Alvarez would be fine, but wouldn’t be anything close to what we were expecting for Pettis’ future before Dos Anjos took a hammer to it.

In any event, we now have a whole new story to tell about the man we thought might lead the lightweight division into the future. For Pettis to come close to making good on all the potential we thought he had a week ago, he’ll eventually have to add his name to that list of two-time UFC champions.

If not, he might will sink into the background, surrounded by the rest of the guys who were supposed to be great and then—suddenly—weren’t.

Barring time travel, naturally.

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Anthony Pettis: Analyzing the Mental Road Toward a Comeback

This isn’t the first time Anthony Pettis has lost. He does have two losses under his belt, so he has proven he has been able to bounce back. 
However, there is something different about this loss. Maybe it was because he was coming into the fight …

This isn’t the first time Anthony Pettis has lost. He does have two losses under his belt, so he has proven he has been able to bounce back. 

However, there is something different about this loss. Maybe it was because he was coming into the fight as a heavy favorite against an opponent whom most pundits just blew off as a simple stepping stone. And maybe it was because he was thoroughly dominated by an opponent most people underestimated. 

It may be hard for those of us outside of the Pettis circle to truly know, but this loss to Rafael dos Anjos has to really sting. But for Pettis fans, the loss hits them in the gut. According to Alex Schlinsky of MMA Mania, even Dana White‘s son was crying after the Anthony Pettis loss.

In Sam Sheridan’s book, The Fighter’s Mind: Inside the Mental Game, American Top Team co-founder Ricardo Liborio stated: 

You have to [understand] you can lose. Somebody can beat your ass; but you can overcome…it’s not your time, it’s not your day. Just because you lose doesn’t make you a loser. It’s not the same fight every time. 

Sheridan also interviewed legend Pat Miletich in The Fighter’s Mind, who stated:

In this sport, nobody wins a world title undefeated. You have to lose fights to get better, honestly…A loss is sometimes just the thing to bring a guy back to earth. Some guys will be on a roll and turn into complete assholes. 

Is Anthony Pettis an asshole? Certainly not. I’ve interviewed him, and he was kind enough to take a picture with me after the UFC 181 post-fight press conference. So my brief personal experiences with the guy don’t lead me to that conclusion.

But to be a fighter, you need a huge ego, or at least a ton of confidence. And after a huge win streak and hitting the stardom that Pettis has reached, it would be easy to feel like you are above it all. 

Technically, this loss showcased the holes in the “Showtime” fight game. Of course, the way to remedy that is to go back to the gym and fix those holes. 

In the end, a devastating loss can actually benefit a fighter, because it forces him to improve and become better. It creates more hunger, and we may even see a better, more entertaining Anthony Pettis because of it. 

The final piece that could create a mental comeback: team.

Despite combat sports being an individual effort, it definitely takes a team to prepare for a fight. Coaches, sparring partners and even family and friends are a necessary part of being a fighter. There’s a lot of emotion that goes into the lead-up to a fight. And cutting weight surely isn’t fun, so it’s nice to have a strong support system there.

In our society, where we value the win, it is the loss where we can examine a fighter’s true character. Pettis is a world-class fighter, and with his support system at Roufusport, we are bound to see a better Anthony Pettis next time around. 

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UFC 185 Results: Ryan Benoit Won’t Be Punished for Kicking Pettis in the Butt

Sergio Pettis got his butt kicked on Saturday night. Literally.
Coming off a loss in his UFC debut, Ryan Benoit was fighting with his back against the wall at UFC 185 against Pettis, one of the flyweight division’s brightest prospects.
The prelim…

Sergio Pettis got his butt kicked on Saturday night. Literally.

Coming off a loss in his UFC debut, Ryan Benoit was fighting with his back against the wall at UFC 185 against Pettis, one of the flyweight division’s brightest prospects.

The preliminary bout was generally looked at as another stepping stone in Pettis’ development as a future top-tier contender. But in a night filled with upsets, Benoit emerged the victor after landing an emphatic left hook and pulling the coup no one expected.

As Pettis turtled on the canvas, Benoit swarmed like a vulture, picking at the leftover pieces of his downed foe. Referee Kerry Hatley eventually stepped in to stop the fight after giving Pettis plenty of time to recover. After the fight ended, Benoit gave Pettis a hard kick to the rear end before casually walking away and celebrating with his team.

The American Airlines Center in Dallas showered the hometown fighter with boos after seeing a replay of the post-fight strike. Luckily for Benoit, a lid was kept on a potentially explosive situation, mostly due to his remorseful post-fight comments.

“That was completely uncalled for and it’s shame on me for doing that. It makes me look bad, it makes my gym look bad, and it looks bad for the sport,” Benoit said when speaking to the media after the fight.

UFC President Dana White confirmed Benoit wouldn’t be punished for his actions during the post-fight press conference. He compared the incident to the post-fight punches thrown by Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Claudia Gadelha’s at UFC on Fox 13.

By White’s standards, the immediate apology and sincere remorse shown by Benoit was grounds to give the 25-year-old flyweight a pass.

“The kid was fired up. He did it. He immediately apologized afterwards,” said White. “The same thing happened in Joanna’s fight [with Claudia Gadelha], and she started apologizing. When someone apologizes and realizes what they did and apologizes, it’s all good.”

Bellator fighter Paul “Semtex” Daley likely won’t be a fan of this decision. He was released from the UFC in 2010 after taking a post-fight swipe at Josh Koscheck. In all fairness, he wasn’t nearly as apologetic for his actions as Benoit and Jedrzejczyk.

 

Jordy McElroy is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon and FanRag Sports.

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